Literary Overture: Young Euro Connect

Europe

Young Euro Connect 2010

August 5th 2010

Ode to Greece: "Thank you for encouraging us to take a fresh look at Europe"

Looking Back

2009 - Europe beyond Brussels

The search was on: Young Euro Connect 2009 was sending out nine young journalists to look for clues, to get behind the scenes, and to cast some light on where the real Europe manifests itself in our everyday lives... Behind the sober formulations in all too many of the regulations and guidelines, one thing remains true when you listen to these fascinating stories: wherever you look, Europe is already there!

2005-2009 - Give just a bit more thought to Europe!

"Give just a bit more thought to Europe!" That has been the deceptively modest appeal that Young Euro Connect has been issuing to young writers from across the continent since the year 2005. The result: surprising, moving and very personal texts that really allow the reader to get inside the intellectual and emotional worlds of these young authors. Texts that might really shake you up – a literary mosaic that, according to the prestigious Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, tells you, “more about Europe than all the history books and political speeches put together.” And since March 2009 it has all been available in book form.

Polishing up Europe’s image - From the very beginning, the idea behind Young Euro Connect has been to encourage young people to get involved in a fruitful conversation about something that they might not otherwise have given all that much thought to: Europe and its values. Just how amazingly successful the project has proven year after year was highlighted in 2007 by the French author Jérôme Lambert, when he commented on his encounters with his fellow writers and his erstwhile rather disillusioned image of Europe: “And I was overwhelmed to discover that, yes, the five of us are on a joint mission: demonstrating that there is something that it’s still very much worth thinking up.“